We decided to take a day off from Disney World and head out and see some real Florida.  Our pick was Wekiwa Springs State Park due to the ease of getting there and it only being about 45 minutes drive from our rental villa in Davenport.  None of us had been here before and it was reported the wildlife viewing here was good.

The day we went was overcast, hot and humid.  We went through the guard shack and paid our $US6 entry fee per car.  At this point we should have been given a park map but we didn’t know this, so continued to go and park our cars.  We found a spot near the spring and went to view the restrooms and then the small wildlife centre with a number of small reptiles and insects found in the area.

In the actual spring, there were a number of people swimming (exercise rather than splashing about) and here we found a park ranger and asked for a map, he pointed us back to the guard shack.  We started heading back that way but before reaching it found a trail head and some paper maps by a sign so grabbed one of those and headed off down a trail.

Lets just say that the noise of 3 boys yelling “shhhh” and “be quiet” to each other likely was the reason we didn’t see any wildlife.  Before long complaints of mosquitos, heat and boredom turned us back to the car park and the springs.  We did a slow walk around the edge to look at the fish, turtles and chat to a local swimmer.  No gators to be seen.

There were kayaks here too for rent if you wanted to – but too hot and humid for us.

We found a spot with picnic tables and had our packed lunched.

Tips for visiting – use insect repellant and leave the noisy children behind 😉

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